


Agent Carter Vignettes

by sheron



Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: Angst, Drowning, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Food Poisoning, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kittens, Post-Season/Series 02, Post-Season/Series 02 Finale, Presumed Dead, Self-Indulgent, Vignettes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2017-05-21
Packaged: 2018-07-16 22:22:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7286938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheron/pseuds/sheron
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ficlets and vignettes in the Agent Carter fandom that are too short to be posted separately. Tags may change as I add more stories to the set.</p><p>#1: For the prompt: Peggy is presumed dead.<br/>#2: For the prompt: Daniel is presumed dead (Fills the 'drowning' square on my H/C bingo.)<br/>#3: Our favourite SSR Agents exercise their people management skills, such as they are. (Fills the 'food-poisoning' square on my H/C bingo.)<br/>#4: Kittens are rescued here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Peggy is presumed dead.

**Author's Note:**

> You can also find me on my [fic tumblr](http://ideseth.tumblr.com/).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written for Sholio after staring for too long at some of her delicious MCU AU Fest prompts! Imagine your own context for this, it’s set shortly post S2. Prompt: Peggy is presumed dead.

* * *

 

They'd actually been discussing it between themselves for ages, which is why it hadn't even occurred to Daniel that Jack might not know. He'd been convalescing, but he was around enough that Daniel was sure he knew all their plans. On the day of it, Ana Jarvis had brought the newspaper in, handing it to her husband with a kiss on the cheek as she passed by on her way to her seat at breakfast. Edwin Jarvis hmmed over the front page and shook his head a lot. Daniel could relate: sometimes the plans that Peggy came up with were frankly outlandish. But needs must and all that, they'd argued over it for days, and finally Peggy over-ruled them by saying the risks were only her own.

The newspaper ended up laying on the side of the breakfast table when they finished and parted for the day. Jack was asleep until ten ― he still got tired and slept most of the day away, his healing body spending all its energy on recovering from the gunshot wound. Daniel was heading out to do damage control when he saw Jack come up, scratching his messy blond hair, and using the walls for support when he thought nobody was looking. The morphine didn't help with balance. Jack made it to the table and leaned heavily on it while he poured himself a glass of water from a nearby crystal bottle. 

Daniel was about to wave and call out a goodbye, when Jack suddenly went deathly pale and the glass in his hand slipped and shattered against the floor. 

"Hey," Daniel called out, immediately on alert.

Jack didn't react to him or to the broken glass lying at his feet, leaning further against the table and wavering. Daniel rushed over there, certain that the man had pulled something or popped his stitches again. The most worrying part was that Jack hadn't let out a sound even by the time Daniel crutched over to him, grabbing hold of his elbow.

"You okay man?" Daniel said, trying to get Jack to look at him. He certainly was worryingly pale, and looked kind of shocky. "What is it―?" But then his eyes finally fell on the object Jack was looking at.

The newspaper lay proudly on the table, front page headlines screaming:

  
EXPLOSION IN CENTER OF TOWN  
3 FEDERAL AGENTS KILLED  
Agent Peggy Carter along with―  


Daniel didn't read further.

"Jack!" he shook the man by the elbow, trying to get his attention, "Jack, this is fake. Peggy's fine!"

Jack glanced at him, blinking slowly, and Daniel knew he had to keep repeating it. "Peggy is alright. She is alive. Nobody was hurt." One of Jack's hands gripped Daniel's shirt, tight. Daniel let his crutch go and leaned his hip on the table, not caring when the crutch fell and cluttered to the floor among the glass. He used his new-found leverage to put the free hand against Jack's cheek, turning the man's face to himself. 

Looking deep into Jack's eyes he repeated: "Peggy is fine, ya hear me?"

Jack finally understood. One of Jack's hands rose up to cover his face and he said hoarsely:

"Jesus _Christ!_ " 

"Yeah." 

Jack panted, gulping air.

Daniel patted him on the cheek and let go, putting a comforting arm around his shoulders instead. "Yeah, we made it up for―. Damn it, I thought Peggy told you all about the plan. I thought you _knew_."

"You―" Jack still wouldn't show his face from behind his palm, but his voice was gruff with emotion, "are _unbelievable assholes_. All of you."

"Yeah. Sorry to scare you like that. Peggy's fine," Daniel said, patting his back now. He couldn't fault Jack for a bit of anger; they'd messed up. He didn't like to think what would have happened to him, if he'd been in Jack's shoes. The thought of Peggy getting hurt on the job had cost him many sleepless nights. She could be so fearless: it was an asset and a liability, both. Daniel wanted to be there to always watch her back, but knew that he couldn't anticipate every threat, shield her against every enemy.

"You scared years off my life," Jack said, finally lifting his face, cheeks red. His eyes were burning and suddenly Daniel's were too. He thought: this is what a person looks like when they care from the bottom of their heart. And that was exactly what Peggy needed, wasn't it? People around her who would worry about her, who'd be her support.

He smiled at Jack, shrugging and feeling no guilt as he said: "It was Peggy's idea."

Jack punched his shoulder and moved back to lean against the table at his side. Their shoulders touched as they contemplated cleaning up the shards from the shattered glass on the floor, in silence.

Eventually, Jack muttered, "When I see her, I'm gonna kill her myself."

Daniel laughed.  


 

* * *

 

**Fin.**


	2. Lucky Ones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuing with the vignettes inspired by Sholio’s mcu_aufest requests, this time for the prompt: Daniel is presumed dead. Set post-S2, fill in your own context. (Also fills the ‘drowning’ square in my [hc_bingo](hc-bingo.livejournal.com) card.)

* * *

 

The flash of gunfire was obscured by lightning in the sky.

The shot rang out, freezing the blood in Jack's veins. Daniel's shoulder jerked back under the power of the impact, and he tumbled over the railing. Jack stood stupidly staring at the spot where a second ago Daniel had stood near the edge of the pier. It didn't seem possible. He almost didn't hear Peggy's cry and the answering sound of her gun that felled the shooter where he stood. Thunder sounded above them again, and this time the sky was split by lightning that hit a far away shore.

They both raced to the railing, lunging to bend over and stare into the swirling, murky ocean water beneath. No sight of Daniel. He must have gone straight to the bottom, that fucking leg of his acting like a weight dragging him down. Of all the myriad of calm summer days in L.A., it had to be storming. The water off the pier was deep enough for large cruise ships, and with the downpour from the skies and the wind, the waves that were crashing against the heavy wooden support beams of the pier were several feet high.

Jack tugged at his tie, willing to jump in after Daniel, but Peggy grabbed his shoulder and yanked him around to face her with more strength than he could have imagined in her tiny frame. 

"Stay here," she said in a voice raw with so much emotion it took his breath away. Her eyes were blazing even in the dusk. "I don't have time to rescue you both!" She kicked off her own shoes, climbed the railing and dived into the water.

Jack cursed. As much as he'd have liked to believe he would be of some help in the water, he didn't know if he could rescue a drowning kitten, let alone a man of Daniel's size. Peggy was right to stop him, even if it rankled. He was useless until he got back to normal.

Looking to see if he could spot Peggy's head above the water all Jack saw was that the swirling waves were impenetrably dark. With lighting once again splitting the black clouds in the sky and a torrential rain cascading over his face and body, Jack cast about for help, but the pier was deserted at this time of evening. There were no people in sight, no cars, nobody he could call for immediate help. They hadn't even been supposed to be out here on their own, but Daniel had spotted a clue and they hadn't left it well-enough alone till morning, chasing the trail. The body of the man they'd ended up pursuing lay off to the side where he dropped after Peggy shot him; everybody lost.

Jack ran to one of the poles grabbing a large red rescue buoy. He should have made Peggy take it before she went in, but his mind had frozen over the possibility that Daniel had fallen into the water already dead. Everything she did was for naught, if that shot had connected... Jack tried to push those thoughts away. 

He searched for Peggy again and finally spotted her, at least a dozen feet away from where she'd jumped in, carried away by a powerful current.

"I can't see him," she screamed over the waves, before diving without waiting for his answer.

The next minute was one of the longest in Jack's life as he waited desperately for her to resurface. Thunder sounded overhead and Jack was certain that with the luck that they were having, a lightning strike would consume him in the next second. Instead, the lightning sounded further away, as the storm rolled on over the ocean. He searched for Daniel with his eyes, desperately wishing he could join Peggy in the water and actually do something to help rather than standing uselessly on the pier because he was still too weak. And slowly, with a crawling sensation over his skin, the realization was settling in that even if he could have jumped in it wouldn't have helped. Daniel was gone. He forced himself to think it and the words fell hollowly, as though into a deep well.

Peggy surfaced almost a minute later, gasping and coughing, but empty handed. Ignoring a pang of despair, Jack threw the buoy at her.

"Grab on!"

It landed a few feet away, but she went for it like a good soldier, catching hold and hanging off it among the swirling waves. She was still looking about and Jack knew that if she let go again, she'd dive and stay under the water long enough to put herself in danger. He couldn't go after her, and if she drowned too, he'd never forgive himself. Jack tugged at the buoy, dragging it towards the stairs off the pier, ignoring the knifing pain in his chest. They could patch the stitches up later. He needed to get Peggy to the shore and keep her safe. That was something he could still do for Daniel.

"I couldn't find him," Peggy shouted as he reached out with a hand to grab her cold one and drag her to safety. She climbed out and sat on her knees on the shore. She repeated brokenly, "It was dark... I couldn't find him."

Jack realized she was crying. 

The rain was slowing, no longer pouring over their heads, but it still drizzled and the howling wind spewed salt water into their faces, making it difficult to hear. Jack crouched next to Peggy, seeing her shoulders shudder. She had a hand over her mouth, sobbing in grief. The noise that came out of her was like that of a wounded animal.

"Peggy... _Peg_ ," he would have done anything to get that sound to stop. Jack took his jacket off and put it around her, not knowing what else to say. His eyes were drawn to the ocean. _That stupid bastard_ , he thought, _how dare he do this to them?_ But it had been a long time since Jack had foolishly expected things to turn out for the best. As much as Peggy and Daniel might have looked like they stepped off the pictures with their Hollywood romance, Jack knew that life was unpredictable and ugly, and your whole world could be up-turned in a single second. Like a flash of lightning; there then gone.

He turned to Peggy collapsed on the ground in front of him. She hadn't moved, but she was rocking herself slightly while looking out into the ocean. _She might never get over this_ , he thought with not a little bit of dread. Jack wasn't sure he could get her to leave even if they spent the night on this pier, surrounded by the waves beating against the wooden planks, and the piercing-cold, howling wind. To be honest, Jack didn't feel like leaving either.

He slumped down next to Peggy, sitting with his back to the water she was staring at, their shoulders touching a little. Even as her cries softened, he felt his own eyes burn with frustration and grief. How was it fair that he'd survive an actual assassination attempt, and Daniel would go down in such a random fashion? It was such a fucking waste of a life.

"Do you hear something?" Peggy straightened at his side.

"What--?" But he shut up at the look she gave him. They listened to the wind and the crash of waves.

_\-- Peggy --_

It sounded over the wind like an echo of a ghost. Like those Sirens out of a Greek myth, whose calls you were supposed to ignore but couldn't help longing for.

They both clambered onto their knees and eventually got up to their feet, using each other for support. Peggy was turning her head around and listening, trying to place the origin of the sound.

Jack went to the edge of the pier, still holding on to her with one hand, afraid to let go. "There!"

In the water, at least twenty feet out from where they'd been sitting, a dark shape was clinging to one of the beams that supported the pier. Peggy whirled around to look.

" _DANIEL!_ "

Jack caught her around the waist so she wouldn't dive straight back into the water. He felt like laughing, but the sound that came out of his mouth was more like a sob. "That son of a bitch!"

"Daniel," she cried again and tried to kick at Jack, to get out of the hold he had on her. Thankfully she snapped to momentarily. As soon as he felt her reason returning, felt her start thinking again instead of rushing in led by overwhelming emotion, Jack let her go and went for the buoy lying nearby. Peggy grabbed one of the thick metal poles with a hook on the edge. They both ran closer to where Daniel was hanging on, wavering in the water. He'd managed to grab on to one of the wooden beams that stuck out of the water under the pier, hugging it with both arms as the water threatened to tear him away.

When he saw them, even in the evening light, Jack could see the wide grin that split his face.

"Peggy!" Daniel cried out again.

"Daniel!" she echoed and grabbed the buoy from Jack's hands, throwing it to her beloved, "Hang on."

The rescue was on. Now that he knew Daniel had survived the fall, Jack reversed his opinion on their luck. Fortune had clearly stacked the deck in their favour somewhere along the way. While he helped Peggy drag Daniel out of the water, Jack gave a silent thanks to whatever deity that would listen. Daniel's shoulder wasn't bleeding profusely, so the shot had either missed or barely grazed him. By the time that Daniel collapsed on the edge of the pier, shivering from the cold with Peggy draping herself all over him, Jack sat back on his heels, watching the two of them. Daniel had only just lifted his face up before Peggy's mouth covered his in a kiss laced with desperation. Maybe she thought she was giving him air. From the way that Daniel latched onto her mouth, maybe he needed whatever she had to give.

They were lucky to have this moment. Jack was lucky to have the two of them, clinging to each other and to life with desperate dedication.

The storm had rolled on in the meanwhile, and the evening sky was clearing. Even though the sun had set completely, the air still felt light in comparison to before. Daniel still had his artificial leg, Jack noted, strapped in as it was. His hands were all scratched up and despite the way Peggy had wrapped her arms around him, leaning him into her chest, he still looked blue in the face from the cold. Still, he'd clung on to that beam, hanging on for dear life until help came. Jack wasn't sure he could have done the same in his place. Just that cussed strength of his getting Daniel through, and by living through it, getting all of them through.

Making their own luck.  


 

* * *

 

**Fin.**


	3. And Then There Were None

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our favourite SSR Agents exercise their people management skills, such as they are. (For the prompt 'food-poisoning' in my hc_bingo card.)

* * *

 

Daniel hated people management.

He didn't hate people. People were great. Managing them however was a pain in the ass that Daniel would have gladly avoided.

Case in point: scientists who would rather ask forgiveness than permission.

"But--" Dr. Samberly started to say, and Daniel had to smack the report he'd been holding against his desk, making Jerry, Samberly's lab-mate, jump.

"No."

"But--" Samberly tried again, even as Jerry, echoed in chorus:  
"But _why not?_ "

Daniel closed his eyes, and counted to five before opening them. "Because fifteen agents."

Samberly looked down. Jerry flushed and shifted from foot to foot.

" _That's right_ ," Daniel said, viciously, rising from his seat and leaning on his desk, in full-authority pose. "Fifteen SSR agents went down with a case of food-poisoning thanks to the experiment that you two cooked up."

Jack, from his pose reclining in an armchair in Daniel's office, looking relaxed and fresh like he wasn't two months away from being at death's door for unrelated reasons drawled, "But they didn't mean to."

Daniel threw him a vicious glare, which just made Jack's eyes light up with laughter. For whatever reason, Daniel's difficulty with getting his subordinates to do what he ordered them to, drew endless amusement from Jack's corner. The man might not be chortling outright, but he looked delighted to be present for this meeting. Daniel wished for patience from Gods above and focused on the main problem at hand.

"You are not, under _any_ circumstances, to use other agents as your lab rats. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," Jerry said. Then when Samberly remained stubbornly silent, glanced at his direct boss out of the corner of his eyes. Who was looking anywhere but at them.

Daniel growled, " _Samberly?_ " 

"It was barely any food-poisoning at all--" the other man whined.

"Doris has been in the hospital for two days!" Daniel almost couldn't breathe he was so frustrated. Was throwing things at your employees really against the law? "Upchucking everything they feed her! Harold isn't doing any better."

"Allergies." Samberly shrugged. "They signed the waver. And how else are we supposed to test our experiments? We can't exactly publish a notice for volunteers in the paper!" 

"Samberly, I swear to God. If I find out one more of my people has to spend time in the hospital thanks to your lab's work, I'm going to sign your last paycheck."

"Understood," Samberly sighed.

"You should talk to Carter," Jack suggested from his armchair. He rested his chin on his fist, and he looked for all the world like a Cheshire cat, drawing philosophical amusement from Daniel's plight. "I'm sure she'll figure out a way for it to work out."

"Oh, thanks!" Samberly said, lit up with the idea.

"No, wait--" But the lab coats shuffled out of his office in search of Peggy. Who probably _would_ find a way to make it work out, with some elaborate ploy that was guaranteed to cause Daniel endless administrative headache. Hey, just because he loved her, didn't mean he didn't know what's what.

"You did that on purpose," Daniel accused the man in his armchair.

Jack stood up, looking satisfied. "Just wait until they start taking impromptu vacations to visit nuclear facilities."

Daniel hoped the flush on his cheeks was hidden by his summer L.A. tan. So alright, maybe Jack knew a little bit of what it felt like to have insubordinate agents working for you, but that had been different. Completely not the same thing at all, since Peggy had been right about Wilkes. And Daniel had one hundred percent supported her.

"Better stock up on aspirin," Jack threw in, as a last pass.

"It's like herding cats," Daniel sighed.

"So, wanna visit Doris and Harold on their deathbeds?" Jack said from the doorway.

Daniel picked up his crutch. "I may have exaggerated a little," he admitted as they strode along the office, Jack's long strides making Daniel work to keep up. 

Samberly must have just missed her, because Peggy was walking into the L.A. office, looking to Daniel's unbiased eye resplendent in a dark purple dress and matching shoes.

"And where are you two headed?" Peggy said, looking curiously between the two of them. 

"Hospital," Daniel told her, "To check on the agents Samberly took out of rotation. Wanna come with?"

Peggy fell into step with them with a smile.

"They are being kept under observation in case of any side-effects, but overall, they should be good to go by morning," Daniel explained. "Did you run into Samberly on your way here?"

"No," Peggy said, "Did he want to talk with me? I could stop by the lab."

She looked between the two of them when Jack laughed and Daniel rubbed his forehead.  


 

* * *

 

Both Jack and Daniel hated hospitals roughly equally; the setting put them both in a terrible mood, so it fell to Peggy to keep up the morale in Doris' single-cot hospital room, and following that in Harold's, which he was sharing with another male patient. Doris had been too weak from dehydration to do much more than smile at them from her pillow, thanking them for coming. Harold was a little more upbeat, and even attempted to sit up before Jack pressed him back down into the bed by the shoulder. Harold and Doris were the new recruits to the SSR, and thus attractive targets for Samberly's clutches. Daniel feared what kind of an impression their first months at work were making on the two green agents. In Harold's case, currently, the green was a literal color he was sporting.

"I'm sorry," Harold was saying in a voice young enough to make Daniel wonder how long ago puberty had hit, "I didn't mean to miss work."

There was a brief silence. Daniel puzzled, baffled why the man wasn't angry with them for not looking after his well-being properly, like supervisors should have.

"That's alright, Agent." Peggy said, and Daniel remembered he should have been the one to reassure the man. "It was out of your control," she added.

"All of us have been there." Daniel added, trying to build one of those rapport things Rose had told him about trying out with the newer recruits.

"Really? You?" Harold looked between them, awed and disbelieving. Clearly the tales of their exploits were making rounds among the junior SSR agents, lending them a certain kind of legendary status. Daniel wasn't sure if this was good or bad, but Harold plainly couldn't believe that any of them could be felled by something simple like a stomach bug. Little did he know, Daniel had some stories from the trenches that would have made him barf on the spot. Harold had been too young to see the war and acted it.

"Yes," Peggy nodded, a little impish grin on her face. "Worst possible time, too. I got sick one time right before a night-time raid in '44. It was terrible. Chucks everywhere..." She shrugged a shoulder, unembarrassed to admit it. "I thought I was going to expire right there and then."

"What got you through?" Daniel was curious since Peggy rarely talked about her time in the war.

"Steve was there," Peggy said simply. She glanced at him, somewhere between fond and apologetic, and Daniel only nodded. He'd never begrudge her the memories she had of Rogers. Surreptitiously, out of view of the others, Peggy brushed the fingers of his hand with hers.

Jack was looking a little distant, the way he'd get sometimes when the subject of the war came up, so Daniel said, in part to pay him back for his amusement earlier, "How about you? Did you get through the entire war without throwing up once?"

Jack's gaze rolled over slowly to Daniel and he seemed to think for a moment. "Oh, I had my fair share." His eyes slid to Peggy for a second, a strange look, but Daniel blinked and the seriousness in the air was gone. Jack went on lightly, "Actually this one time, a couple of my pals came down with something on one of the islands in the Pacific we were taking back. Docs couldn't Adam-and-Eve what caused it, because we all ate from the same stock, we slept in the same trenches, but a couple of boys would always fall sick while the rest of us were fine. Sometimes two or three times per season they'd be weak like newborns, chills, fever, nausea -- the works. Turned out it was a mosquito. We had a running joke that we had to finish the Japs before the bugs ate us alive."

Peggy and Daniel, who were both well-read on the subject of malaria carrying mosquitoes faced in abundance by the army in the Pacific, both shuddered.

"But people like Dr. Samberly," Jack gave Daniel a significant look, "had synthesized Atabrine that might make you look yellow, but it fixed you right up to fight the good fight." Jack smiled. "And we did beat them."

"I don't blame Dr. Samberly for what happened," Harold said, reading between the lines of Jack's little pep-talk. He tried to cower the yawn that threatened to break out on his tired face, and went on to say: "I know he didn't mean to make us sick. He came and apologized earlier." 

This was news to Daniel. Encouraging news, because he hadn't believed Samberly cared about the well-being of any of the people he worked with (with perhaps the exception of Rose and her pies). Maybe his oddball agent was a better team-player than he'd thought.

"I'm guessing you'll be on your feet in no time," Peggy said, and Harold nodded, eager to please. "In the meanwhile, try to take it easy, Agent."

"Will do, ma'am," The boy grinned toothily, trying to keep his eyes open even though they were closing from fatigue.

Their duties at the hospital complete, the three of them turned to go.

"Chief Thompson?" Harold called before they could leave the room. When Jack looked back, he wondered, sleepily, "Do you still keep in touch with your pals after the fighting's over? The ones who got sick?"

"No."

Harold was too young and inexperienced to know what Jack meant by that.  


 

* * *

 

**Fin.**


	4. Of Kittens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For [Sholio](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Sholio/works).

“You know you've got a cat sitting on your chest, right?” Daniel said.

Jack lifted his matted blond head up to glare at him, and wrapped the thick blanket tighter around himself. He did not remove the cat.

It stayed curled into a soft ball of grey fuzz, tucked somewhere between Jack’s shoulder and his ear, its pink nose barely visible, and one tiny paw hanging loosely on his chest. It was purring.

Jack on the other hand looked drenched from foot to toe. Thus the blanket, which he clutched to himself as he sat at the rear of a van.

“He rescued it,” Samberly offered gamely from inside the van, where he was crouched over some complicated-looking machinery.

Jack slowly turned to glare at Samberly.

“Shutting up now.” The other man put his nose down into his work.

Daniel pressed his lips together and composed his face, so that by the time Jack turned back around he was no longer in danger of cracking up with laughter.

“So it seems like you’re gonna live?” he said after he got his voice under control under the heated glare from Jack’s grey eyes.

“I fell in a river, I didn't drown, therefore yes, I think I’ll live.” His tone dripped with sarcasm.

“Good,” Daniel said. “I've got relief efforts to supervise….” he trailed off.

The kitten made an aborted wriggle on Jack’s shoulder and he set his palm against its back to keep it from falling. His palm was large enough to cover the entire animal, which let out a pitiful meow as it settled more firmly against the warm human.

Daniel observed this impassively. Jack’s glare, if possible, burned hotter.

Daniel coughed to clear his throat. “Peggy’s in the thick of it. Yes, I’d better go find her now.” He swirled around and strode quickly away.

“Don’t even think about telling Carter!” Jack shouted in his wake.

Daniel pretended not to hear him.

“Jack Thompson, the kitten-rescuer,” Daniel said softly to himself once he was out of ear-shot, and shook his head. “Now I've seen everything.”


End file.
